fountainhall wrote:If you rent an apartment and have a few million lying around in a bank account and cannot make a Thai will, then how do you leave that cash or part of it to your partner?

I imagine this happens to many farang and God only knows who ends up with the money. On second thought, I think even God would be confused.

I guess if you're fortunate enough to die suddenly without any warning signs the boy would be shit out of luck. If there are warning signs you could simply transfer the funds to his bank account and call it a day. Of course the risk there would be if you were to somehow miraculously survive and the millions of baht you had laying around is now in your Thai boy friends bank account. Get ready for another heart attack...

fountainhall wrote:If you rent an apartment and have a few million lying around in a bank account and cannot make a Thai will, then how do you leave that cash or part of it to your partner?

My answer to that question would be a little different from Dodger's. When it comes to medical or legal advice, the last place I would try to get it would be from message board posts or web sites. Would you really want to rely on that? That's much too important.

When trying to find out about a Thai will or how to be certain your beneficiary can get whatever you're trying to leave, my two sources would be a competent Thai attorney and what my embassy can tell me.

Speaking only for myself, any other sources are completely irrelevant and useless.

fountainhall wrote:unless you have a close connection to Thailand you cannot have a Thai will.

I don't know of any country where you can have a legally valid will that will be upheld without a close connection. I'm an American living in Thailand. I won't be trying to make a will in Burkina Faso.

Whether I have, by Thai law, what constitutes a close connection is not going to come from a message board post, from a web site, or from an assumption. It will come from a competent Thai attorney and the embassy, especially if there are complications - such as the beneficiary might not even be Thai, or there might be more than one beneficiary.

There are dark stories in Thai families, too. I know a young man whose whole family died, the last of which, his mom. He had inherited his Mom's house and land which I was told was worth 350,000 Thai baht, not a big sum to us, but sizable to Thais. An aunt came along and claimed she gave his Mom a loan years ago, which she never paid back and for which nothing at all was in writing. He negotiated enough for a down payment on a car, which to this day he worships. It is a shrine to his mother, decked out with a stereo, review-view camera, fresh Buddha flowers.

The Aunt gave him no other choice. He was now the sole survivor of the entire immediate family. Either he surrender his share of his small fortune to his Aunt, or be ostracized by the family, forever. He would have been completely alone.

No fool in this scenario, just unfortunate circumstances. And tragic nonetheless.

As is clear. I'm not a lawyer. I'm curious, though. If you do not have or are not permitted to have a Thai will, what is the process for the finances of a deceased to be transferred out of the country? Do you have to prove that the funds were brought in to the country in the first place? Are taxes due on them? I am not in this position - at present - and so will not bother paying for legal advice to find out. But others will have been living here for some years and may have at least some assets here - e.g. those opt to renew retirement visas via the Bt. 800,000 route.

fountainhall wrote:If you do not have or are not permitted to have a Thai will, what is the process for the finances of a deceased to be transferred out of the country?

I would still recommend a Thai attorney and contact with your embassy, but if it helps anything I do have a story about precisely that.

A few years ago an American friend opened an account at a Thai bank. He intended to purchase a condo. Since he did not yet reside in Thailand, he asked that monthly statements be sent by regular mail. That was fine with the bank, but they would send the statements only to a Thai address.

That's where I came in. My friend asked if it would be ok to have the statements sent to my address, and then I could either mail them to him or scan them and send the copies to him by Email. That was fine with me and fine with the bank. He could have had online banking, but for whatever reasons he did not want online banking.

Unfortunately, while he was still in the USA, he died. His sister contacted me to ask if I had access to the money. She found his debit card, but had no idea what the code was. Neither did I and I had no access to the money. If she had the code, she could have withdrawn the money from any ATM in the USA. But without the code, now it was a major hassle.

What she discovered was in order to get the money, she would have to produce a death certificate and proof that she was the next of kin. She would have to personally go to Thailand and personally go to the bank to retrieve the money.

No problem about the death certificate, but I never did find out what would be involved in proving she was the next of kin. The money was not an amount substantial enough for her to make it worth it to make the trip to Thailand, so that was the end of it.

To this day I still receive the monthly bank statements. She's not interested in them and they're of no use to me, so I just take a look and then throw them out. Every so often the bank deducts a minor service charge from the account. I assume that once the service charges eventually empty the account, the statements will stop. I could have had the statements stop coming if I went to the bank and presented a death certificate, but I never asked her for one and she never sent one.

fountainhall wrote:As is clear. I'm not a lawyer. I'm curious, though. If you do not have or are not permitted to have a Thai will, what is the process for the finances of a deceased to be transferred out of the country?

Just so you know, lawyers in Thailand only charge between 500 - 1,000 baht for a one hour consultation. I have had these consultations several times over the years and found them very useful. Also, many of the Thai laws which could potentially impact visiting foreigners and expats were written exclusively in Thai language until about 2010 which is when English versions started to get written and made available. You can easily do a google search which will provide you with a direct reference to the actual law(s) you want to understand better.

As far as a Will & Testament is concerned, my plan is very simple and in accordance with both Thai and U.S. law. I already have a W&T here in the U.S. naming my two children as the benefactors of the money in my U.S. bank account. I have no property to be settled in the U.S. The W&T includes the provision that this inheritance is restricted to U.S. holdings only. I plan to get a Thai W&T at some point in the future naming my partner as the beneficiary of my property and bank holdings in Thailand with the same provision that his inheritance is restricted to holdings in Thailand only. Including these provisions is consistent with both Thai and U.S. law.

Based on consultations I've had with two Thai lawyers and the research I've done on Thai Inheritance laws, a foreigner must, at a minimum, be a Resident of Thailand in order to have a Thai Will. Obtaining a Thailand Certificate of Residency is a simple process for those who own a condo or have a long term rental agreement. Those holding Non- Immigrant (Retirement) Visa's already qualify.

According to Thai Law a foreigner has the option of having a Thai Will or just having one Will from their home country which covers assets in both countries, which, according to law, would suffice. Personally I would never take this approach..way too many hassles for family members and too much risk involved at getting ripped off during the process. Thai laws regarding foreigner Wills are definitely not Foreigner Friendly.

Again, the best approach would be to talk directly to a lawyer and/or bone up on Thai law pertaining to Wills to decide the best solution that fits your personal needs.